Have you declared Instagram mutiny? Here’s what to do before deleting your account

The outrage over Facebook’s Instagram acquisition has been about what you’d expect. Instagrammers have loudly voiced their displeasure, claiming they plan to delete their precious accounts, take their photos, and flee the platform altogether.

We’ve seen this time and time again: popular platform makes major adjustment or acquisition. Popular platform’s users take to Twitter and such sites to scream bloody murder. Two weeks later, it’s all blown over. Sure, there will be some remaining aggression and a year from now I’m more than certain the earliest and most addicted Instagram users among us will cast their eyes heavenward and with a sigh reminisce about the days when the app was new and exclusive and independent. Frustrations about the stream being flooded with constant Facebook photo posts are sure to crop up – especially considering how all those bratty iPhone users reacted to the Android launch.

But if you’re one of the seriously offended Instagram users who want to jump ship, then you need to walk the walk. Here’s what you need to do to get out.

Get your photos

Instaport.Me: You can send your photos to another social networking account or your hard drive. Your call.

Copygram: Same deal here. Download all of your Instagram images as a zip file.

Instadrop: If you want a little more time, this app connects Instagram uploads with Dropbox, so they will automatically sync with the service.

SocialFolders: Transfer your Instagram content to another account and then sync this to your computer.

Reconnecting

Think of any site where you’ve included a link to your Instagram account. For many of us, this means About.me, Flavors.me, Tumblr, Posterous, etc. Once you delete that account, you’re obviously going to have some blank space. So if you still want that content, you need to port your photos elsewhere and link the new account. Flickr is always a safe bet, as is Google+’s photo client. Obviously, Facebook is as well, but we’d assume you’re trying to avoid that option.

Switching teams

Now it would seem you’re in the market for a new photo filtering and sharing platform – lucky for you, there are a variety of options. PicPlz is perhaps the most well known alternative with the biggest following, but here are a few other top choices.

Camera Awesome: A very interesting and new UI, but it’s gaining ground as a popular platform.

Camera+: A much more fully-featured, and thus crowded, editing app. What it lacks in community it makes up for in tools.

Pixlr-o-matic: This option has a much more Instagram-friendly UI, but again, not much of a community following.